In my last column, I argued that for all the undeniable woes of the Republican Party, the unfurling of Obamacare represents a huge vulnerability for Democrats. The Democratic health reform bill is economically nonsensical and politically unpopular. A recent Rasmussen poll found that 54 percent believe the law will damage the U.S. health care system. Even among Democrats, support for the law is ebbing. In February, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that only 57 percent of Democrats (compared with 72 percent in November of 2012) support the law.

The battle over health care reform is not over. Yes, the 2012 election ensured that the law would not be repealed and replaced in 2013. But when the American people are unhappy with a policy, they find a way to alter it. Republicans can tie themselves in knots and consider abandoning their principles on abortion, taxes, immigration or marriage (and perhaps some of those positions require rethinking), but the health care issue is pitched right over home plate.

Nearly every American is intimately concerned with the delivery of health care. Choice and competition can deliver what Americans desire -- a quality product at an affordable price. Before offering reform proposals, Republicans need to be clear that they are not endorsing the status quo ante.

The pre-Obamacare health care system was not a free market for health care at all but a peculiar hybrid with distorting incentives created by bad government policy. Because the government set wages and prices during World War II, employers were not permitted to raise salaries more than a set amount approved by National War Labor Board. Employers resorted to providing fringe benefits, including health coverage, and the IRS approved this workaround by treating fringe benefits differently from wages. Thus was born the link between employment and health_insurance.......

I believe a guy in 2018 (five years away)...will basically say that fifty percent of ObamaCare has been strongly modified or dumped. The number of people without health insurance? Probably just as many or more....as it was in 2008. Social scientist will try to explain how it never worked...talking mostly over high expectations and lousy understandings of the actual problems.

As for legacy stuff? There won’t be much to brag about. By 2024, some idiot will stand up and talk about a defining way of providing health care...giving it some name of “Compassion 2025”...and we go through the whole experience again. The result will be a sixteen thousand page bill which is passed through the Senate in a matter of seven days.

Ran across a political science major nitwit who couldn’t wait for Obamacare to ‘kick in’ so she could get healthcare. I tried to tell her that she could get that now. She got excited and asked how. I told her that Obama was only a law that made her buy health insurance, she could do that now. She was confused. She TRULY thought it was healthcare for all. I said “It is, it’s a law saying you have to buy a health insurance policy, so I guess technically, you are right.”

She was angry and I assume googling earnestly after our conversation because she didn’t believe me.

So many idiots, so little time...

8
posted on 03/23/2013 12:39:06 AM PDT
by autumnraine
(America how long will you be so deaf and dumb to thoe tumbril wheels carrying you to the guillotine?)

Let us know. If you mean Obamacare will dump what it falsely calls it’s health insurance, yep. Because there is no health insurance. Never has been. It’s a scam. Now if you can tell us that the real Obamacare will be dumped with laws and hidden agenda we don’t know about concerning taking over and destroying our country. When is this Obamacare going to be dumped and all the thugs associated with it?

When Obamacare comes into full effect, for those over 70 it will not matter whether or not they have insurance.

Certainly they will be paying for it,but if they get sick it will be denied them through the rationing panel.

Oh!!! You might get a little help for a cold , if you can find a Nurse practitioner, but if you get something that is lingering and costly to provide you may as well bend over and kiss your ass goodbye.

When the inevitable collapse comes, it will all depend on whom the sheeple pin the blame. So far, the sheeple are blaming the early fallout of ObamaCare on their employers and the insurance companies. If this trend continues, the lib/progs will be able parlay the anger and dissatisfaction into votes in 2014 and 2016. And I’m afraid it’s all according to plan, because the American sheeple are just that dumb. So effin’ brain-dead dumb.

We don’t ‘rethink’ life, freedom. nationhood and morality. Rather we ‘emphasize’ them and ‘pass them on’ from generation to generation.

The rest of the summary of the history of the unholy alliance between employer and employee stemming from Roosevelt’s folly is fairly accurate and informative but not new.

Charen’s purpose is to steer the Stupid party away from the defining issues of life, freedom, nationhood and morality and towards Obama madness in health. Fine, but it always ends up with what are the Stupids going to do to replace Obama’s con artistry?

The answer right now is there is no answer and there shouldn’t ever be an answer from government. There are solutions out there in the private sector but investors are broke or jaded, entrepreneurs are abandoned or on hold and Obamacare is a roadblock to solutions. The government propped up by the Federal Reserve credit card is the only player at the table right now. Without this block, the solutions would come forward and people would see what works.

Why haven’t these solutions come forward in the past pre-Obamacare?

Answer: Government interference and displacement of markets by Medicaid and Medicare. Government has already taken the controlling market share. It is difficult to undo what they have done which is to make medical delivery so expensive that the only answer is more government meaning more taxes.

The only way out of this tar pit is to grow the economy through a massive change in the tax code with the ‘FairTax’, then pay for the doctors and hospitals with emerging markets and reduce the market share held by government to zero with strict laws that government is not to ever interfere in health markets again. It can be done and must be done without compromise. To leave government involved in health even as a fraction of a percent is to leave cancer cells remaining after surgery only to come back later with a vengeance.

The smarter democrats know perfectly well that Obamacare, as passed, will not work. And that is perfectly ok with them. Its purpose in their eyes is (1) to destroy private health insurance, which will be turned into a collection of no-longer-competitive companies functioning as government benefit administrators, and (2) to convert all health care providers into government contractors in all but name.

With this in place, when Obamacare collapses, single payer will seem the obvious "fix."

We will then reconstruct a private health insurance market outside of single payer for those who can afford it, as is typical in much of Europe. If necessary, the services will be provided abroad, and the U.S. will cease to be the world leader in medical care. There are many countries in Asia that will be happy to assume this role and cater to the carriage trade.

If you are over 65 you are on Medicare. You have no choice it is the law.

My mom was overseas when she turned 65, since she had health insurance through her employer she thought there would be no problem. Fast forward to when they finally decided to retire. Medicare wanted to FINE her for not signing up on time. She pointed out that she was overseas and had full health insurance. No matter.

She fought for a year and it only ended when her former employer got a lawyer and he had a chat with Medicare.

BTW her employer used to offer full health insurance after retirement. That can not do that any more. The best they can do is offer supplemental insurance and BTW that is considered taxable income.

I see some potentials for ending Obamacare as well as Medicare and Medicaid as they currently exist, but doing so while minimizing harm as much as possible.

To start with, turn administration over to the states with guidelines that are *not* mandatory. Payment in block grants only. States can add to, but cannot delete from the grants, and have strict limits on administrative costs.

Second, open up the federal law to permit “open season” medical care. This means cash only, no insurance, no Medicare or Medicaid for routine care only. Insurance allowed only for catastrophic health care. In exchange, physician and hospital liability is limited to “actual damages”, and revocation of state medical licenses.

Third, offer tax advantages to not using emergency, Medicare and Medicaid, or any other government health care. If you *don’t* use it, you get deductions whose actual value is slightly more than the medical costs.

Mainstream VA care, except for medical problems that exist mostly for service members, like PTSD and “war” diseases like Gulf War Syndrome, as well as prosthetics and rehabilitation.

Privatize the HIPPA record keeping, and put strict limits on what non-medical personnel can access it without a written unique warrant.

If she qualifies as poor enough she will be able to get health insurance for free. She will have to fill out a 21 page application which comes with a 61 page instruction book. Getting health care insurance and getting health care treatment are two different things though. With doctors retiring or going cash only and millions of people getting their new free insurance seeing a doctor may become more uncommon than seeing a Sasquatch.

32
posted on 03/23/2013 1:25:48 PM PDT
by TigersEye
(The irresponsible should not be leading the responsible.)

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.